"We have new brain-based evidence that autobiographically salient music -; that is, music that holds special meaning for a person, like the song they danced to at their wedding -; stimulates neural connectivity in ways that help maintain higher levels of functioning." - News Medical
The Illinois legislature approved the rule this summer — almost entirely along party lines. Republicans seem to assume out-of-hand that the class will be anti-conservative; supporters say there's no political agenda other than "giving students tools to develop their own BS detectors." - Axios
Theater salaries, even for full-time jobs, are so low so often that the weekly nationwide theater newsletter Nothing for the Group recently debuted a section called That’s Not a Living Wage. - San Francisco Chronicle
When a co-founder of the Pillars Fund advocacy organization discussed this issue within the industry, he heard repeatedly that decision-makers didn't know where to find Muslim actors, writers and directors to hire. So the group created the Pillars Muslim Artist Database. - The New York Times
First Folio Theatre, a small Equity company in the Chicago suburbs, will close when David Rice retires in 2024. He and his wife founded First Folio in 1996; they had other sources of income, and the theatre can't afford to properly pay a successor. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
Los Angeles magician Krystyn Lambert and puppeteer Pam Severn have launched a new variety show called "No Man's Land" featuring circus artists, jugglers, ventriloquists, comics, and, of course, prestidigitators — the goal being "normalize female-dominated shows." - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
Sadler's Wells East, one of the anchors of the coming East Bank arts district, will include a 550-seat theatre presenting numerous dance genres, a choreographic school, rehearsal spaces, and a new Hip Hop Theatre Academy where the UK's Olympic breaking team will train. - Time Out (London)
The two most-attended are the same as most years, the Louvre and the National Museum of China; below them, pandemic closures changed the rankings considerably, with the Met falling to eighth and the most popular Smithsonian museums gone from the top 15. - World Economic Forum
After a successful but unhappy career as a child star, he left and returned to acting several times: in the late '50s and 60s, winning two prizes at Cannes; in '70s B-pictures; under '80s and '90s auteurs Demme, Altman, Lynch, etc.; and finally in science fiction TV. - The Guardian
An Egyptian-Canadian journalist and author who lives in Portland, Oregon, El Akkad describes his novel as "a repurposed fable. It's the story of Peter Pan inverted and recast as the story of a contemporary child refugee." - CBC
Research was completed by an organization that specializes in analyzing local music scenes — Sound Diplomacy — which has come up with strategies for major music cities such as London, England and New Orleans. - CBC
Glasgow nightclub SWG3 is set to trial technology that captures body heat from dancers to create renewable energy to heat up or to cool down the venue. - BBC
“Powers and Thrones” reminds us why modern scholars cringe at any reference to the term “Dark Ages.” The idea that the early Middle Ages were an era of barbarism and ignorance is refuted by Dan Jones’s vast array of evidence to the contrary. - The New York Times
In all, the 30 productions had a combined paid attendance of 193,309, about 82% of total capacity. The previous week’s attendance was 78% of capacity. - Deadline
By using things like imagery, metaphor, narrative and even white space, poetry has the power to make abstract or diffuse issues, like climate change, more real to readers. - The Conversation
